Youngest Best-Selling Business Author Shares Keys to Success at PestWorld 2021

At the PestWorld 2021 Opening General Session on Nov. 3, sponsored by Corteva, speaker Alex Banayan, the youngest best-selling business author in U.S. history, shared the secrets to success he’s learned by interviewing some of the most influential leaders of today — including Bill Gates, Lady Gaga, Larry King, Maya Angelou, Steve Wozniak, Jane Goodall, Jessica Alba and Quincy Jones.

Banayan’s best-selling book, “The Third Door,” chronicles his quest to understand how the world’s most successful people started their careers, as well as the adventures this mission carried him on as he tracked down and interviewed so many icons. His larger-than-life story began when he won The Price Is Right as a freshman in college and used the money to fund his journey.

“For the past 10 years, I’ve been obsessively studying success,” he said. He shared some of the key pieces of wisdom he accumulated along the way with PestWorld attendees.

First, Banayan shared a lesson he learned from Larry King about how persistence truly works in the business world.

After a happenstance run-in with King in the grocery store, Banayan managed to convince the late TV and radio host to grab breakfast with him the following morning. At first, King was gruff and close-lipped with Banayan, but with patience and persistence, Banayan was able to break through King’s shell and learn about the art of interviewing from him. The pair eventually shared breakfast over 50 times. 

Banayan explained that from the time we are young, we receive the implicit message from society that if you fail at something several times — say, making the baseball team — you should pack up and try something else — maybe basketball, instead.

But in the world of business (and in the business of befriending Larry King), he learned, “You have as many at-bats as you are willing to give yourself.”

The next lesson came from record producer Quincy Jones, who changed Banayan’s perspective on mistakes. During an interview, Jones told Banayan, “It’s only when you cherish your mistakes that you can learn from them, and only then can you grow.”

This lesson applied to what Banayan described as his most embarrassing moment on his quest to learn about success, when he pushed a little too hard to get an interview with business mogul Warren Buffett. Banayan spent eight months trying to track down Buffett, calling his office weekly and hearing no at every avenue. 

“Every no felt like I was just being punched in the gut,” he said. “By six months, it felt like I was kneeling over, coughing up blood.”

The pain culminated when Banayan tried to hack Buffett’s shareholder meeting and was publicly rejected. Banayan had to learn the hard way that sometimes, there is such a thing as over-persistence. 

“Persistence is knocking on 100 doors, not knocking on the same door 100 times,” he said.

Eventually, Banayan landed an interview with Bill Gates, a close friend of Buffett’s. That interview went so well that Gates’ team asked how they could help Banayan with the rest of his book. Banayan asked if they could help him finally get that interview with Buffett, and sure enough, a week later, he received a letter back from Gates’ team. Unfortunately, it read, “Please no more contact with Warren Buffet’s office.” 

Lesson learned: “You can dig yourself into such a deep hole that even Bill Gates can’t pull you out,” Banayan quipped.

Though Banayan learned innumerable lessons from the celebrities and leaders he interviewed, one of the greatest discoveries came from the journey to reaching them and the message that became loud and clear along the way. This message is what he left PestWorld attendees with: “The soul of this journey was all about possibility,” he said.